Todd Bodine snares Kansas win

Todd Bodine demonstrated the strength of his Allman Brothers Band Toyota Tundra by winning the O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas Speedway. Bodine started tenth and moved steadily towards the front using a combination of patience and hard driving. With one of the fastest trucks on the speedway, Bodine was able to bide his time making calculated moves to earn his third career victory. After pushing his Toyota to its limits, he would ease up, cooling his tires and measuring his next opponent.

Todd Kluever finished a career best second driving a Ford F-150. "We just didn't have enough for Todd. For us to have a real shot it would have had to go green for the last 25 laps," said Kluever.

Toyota Tundras finished in four of the top five positions with David Reutimann finishing third followed by Mike Skinner and Bill Lester in fifth.

Bill Lester, who started from his second career pole, had hoped to lead the first lap but his teammate Mike Skinner, who started second, raced him side by side until the third turn. Lester eased off the throttle allowing Skinner to pull ahead. Lester tracked wide and David Reutimann slipped into second. Lester held off Todd Kluever for third while Jack Sprague ran in fifth as the top five trucks pulled away from the field. Todd Bodine, running in sixth, joined the front runners just before a caution period on lap 30.

Skinner dominated the first portion of the race, swapping the lead with Reutimann several times before Reutimann slipped back into the pack.

Todd Kluever kept Skinner honest during the next segment with Jack Sprague in third. Bodine patiently held down fourth after recouping several spots lost during the first round of pit stops.

After a caution period for a spin by Tracy Hines, Skinner, Bodine and Kluever broke away from the field in a three way battle for the lead. Bodine made his bid for the lead, taking the point for the first time on lap 59. Once in the lead, Bodine pulled away with a 15 truck length advantage.

Caution on lap 68 sent the field to the pits and Skinner to the rear of the field for the restart when he was nabbed for speeding on pit lane.

On the next round of pit stops Hornaday beat Bodine out of the pits and led the field to green. Bodine measured his competition at the front while Kluever and Reutimann, separated by two lapped cars, held third and fourth, respectively.

Bodine nearly lost control of his truck on lap 136 while challenging Hornaday for the lead. Hornaday pressed Bodine low in turn three, the truck got loose, nearly spun out and Bodine fell to third. "I scared myself, that's for sure. These trucks are so aerodynamic, when you get behind somebody and lose your air, they push terrible. When you get underneath somebody and take the air from your spoiler they get loose. Coming off of (turn) two I knew I was going to be loose down there but Ron ran me real close and it sucked me around. I got lucky. I gathered it up."

During the bobble Kluever slipped into second and before Bodine could regain the position, the sixth caution period of the day froze the field.

When the green was shown Bodine displayed the superiority of his ride, wasting little time in moving back to the front. Once at the point, two late caution periods in the final laps set up a two lap shoot out to the finish.

Neither Kluever nor Reutimann were able to mount a serious challenge with Bodine crossing the finish line 0.387 seconds ahead of second place. "The first three laps after a restart we could run wide open. We had an awesome truck today."